Thanks for all the recommendations folks.
I went out today and bought Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina, loved them both.
Couple of questions the second one raised:
1) Are there more animes animated in the Ex Machina style? I think I remember the Final Fantasy movies being done like this (or similar anyway), and I enjoyed those too...at the very least I liked Spirits Within, I've only seen Advent Children in a very butchered, badly dubbed series of clips whilst drunk. I remember something to do with bikes and a desert, then a funny lake, that's about it. I think I prefer these to the Naruto-style animation (if you understand what I mean), at least for serious movies - the first episode of Chrono Crusade was brilliant as it was quite funny, I think that style of anime works better there. Is there a name for the Appleseed/FF style of animation so I know what to look out for in the future?
2) When I was previewing the films I came across this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYl77kvKbBU&feature=related
There was nowt like that in the two movies I have. Is there a third movie, is this from a game, or is it entirely fan-made? Because this looks utterly awesome, and wasn't in either of the movies I watched.
+EDIT+ Hmm, Wiki tells me there's another movie out there (I watched the 88 OVA and the 07 Ex Machina). Bugger, I thought I had them all (well, no HMV stocked more than the two I had). Would this be the correct (2004) one that I'm missing:
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;0;-1;-1;-1&sku=423116
+END+
When I was browsing in the shop, I saw complete collections for Ghost in the Shell, Elfen Lied and Deathnote - though at £50 a pop I decided to pass at this moment in time. Student loan comes through in a week :evilgrin:
But I did notice some packs of movies called "Black Lagoon" or something. The blurb on the back sounded really interesting, and I note it's been recommended once or twice above (I couldn't remember when shopping) - take it that would be a good pick?
I have sourced a pre-order for the complete collection of Wolf's Rain for about £15 too which I'm very happy about.
So yes, in summary:
1) I thought Appleseed was excellent (both 80s and 07), love that style of anime of the 07.
2) I love epicness of Wolf's Rain.
3) Mindfuckery sounds good - as long as it's in a "psychological" sense like Deathnote, not the "giant purple panda hipthrusting across the screen to a shower of fireworks and tears, as the main characters undress and reveal they haven't got any skin" mindfuckery.
What movies/series should I be looking out for that are similar to either of those (if they haven't been mentioned already)? Just thought I'd ask again now that I've managed to narrow my preferences down.
I can safely say that Naruto or Dragonball Z aren't for me at this stage, nor is Gundam or Robotech or that stuff. Might give Code Geass/Evangelion another shot somepoint in the near future though - it's not just the mechs, it's the style of animation for the most part (as I said, I think I love Chrono Crusade and Darker than Black as exceptions) - and people carrying swords larger than themselves outside of Final Fantasy tends to put me off a bit (probably quite a problem for a budding anime fan)
